P550 as a Mio168 replacement

[gareth71]

I'm looking at replacing my Mio168 with a P550, and have a couple of questions.

The speaker on the P550 looks (from the photos) as though it's on the back of the unit. How does the volume of the 550 in an in-car situation compare to the 168? My 168 is plenty loud enough to be heard over road noise and the radio - is the 550?

Also, what's GPS reception like on the 550? I can't see a 'fold-out' antenna on any of the photos - does it need an external antenna to work effectively, or is there a really good internal antenna that doesn't need a 'foldy-out bit' (technical term!)?

[Border_Collie]

The P550 has a SiRF III chipset, compared to SiRF II on the 168 and a faster processor.

SiRF III is more sensitive but the dreaded athermic screens still interfere with TTFF, although if you get a fix outside the car first, everything runs fine.

The speaker is loud enough, I have mine set to 60%.

The aerial is built in, rather than flip up, and the 168 external aerial fits the P350/550's if needed.

Don't expect the P550 to be twice as good as the 168, it's not, there is only a marginal improvement.

If your 168 is still running OK, it may be worth hanging on a while to see if a new model appears in the not too distant future.
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